A wellness program is a program typically offered by an employer, healthcare provider, or insurance company that is intended to improve and promote the health of employees and individuals. Wellness programs often include tasks for individuals to perform, such as participating in sponsored exercise, joining weight-loss competitions, attending diabetes management lectures, listening to educational seminars, and reading tobacco cessation literature. Wellness program tasks may also include screenings that are designed to monitor the physical health of individuals, such as measurement of blood pressure or glucose levels.
An employer, healthcare provider, insurance company, or other party controlling access to wellness programs (collectively, “sponsors”) can offer a wellness program or a suite of wellness programs to a user such as an employee or an insured party. Wellness programs are often administered via a service platform such as a website or an application program. For example, a user can use a mobile application to access and participate in wellness programs. In such an example, a user can download the mobile application, register using a screen name linked to an email address, and select certain wellness programs in which to participate. Alternatively, a user can use a desktop or laptop computer to access a website and register for a service that provides wellness programs. The service can provide a set of wellness programs to a user, allowing the user to select desired programs in which to participate. For example, a working father may have a few fitness goals such as reducing stress, losing weight, and managing diabetes. He can access a website provided by a business that offers wellness programs to accomplish his goals.
Wellness programs can take a variety of forms, but typically are associated with one or more goals. Each goal is defined by one or more tasks to be completed by the user within a certain time period. Tasks are recommended activities for users to complete in furtherance of the goals of a wellness program. For example, the goal of a wellness program may be to reduce stress. The tasks in the wellness program may be to take a five-minute walk outside during the workday, to watch a short instructional video on stress reduction, or to journal thoughts at the end of each day. As another example, the goal of a wellness program may be to lower blood pressure. The tasks can include regularly (e.g., 15 minutes/day, every day) performing a cardiovascular exercise such as running or cycling over a one-month period.
Unfortunately, people struggle to effectively use wellness programs. One reason why people struggle to effectively use wellness programs is because they are overwhelmed with the number of tasks that need to be completed. Wellness programs often include several tasks (e.g., 5 or more) to be completed, and users typically participate in multiple, concurrent wellness programs (e.g., 3 or more). As a result, users have a large quantity of tasks to complete (e.g., 15 or more) in a given timeframe, which overwhelms the user and, in some cases, results in reduced motivation and desire to participate in a wellness program.
Another reason why people struggle to effectively use wellness programs is because the tasks associated with a wellness program may not be suitable for a user. One variable for determining if a task is suitable for a user is the surrounding physical facilities that either help or hinder the user in completing the task. For example, a user may have a task to run outside in a park, but a user may be located in an area that does not have a park in close proximity. The weather at the location of the user may also help or hinder the user. For example, a user may have a task to swim in a lake or an ocean, but the weather where the user is located may present cold and windy conditions that would make such swimming unpleasant or difficult. If conditions are not suitable for the user to complete the task, most users forgo the task and fail to make progress in completing wellness programs.
The need exists for systems and methods that overcome the above problems, as well as provide additional benefits. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.
The techniques introduced in this disclosure can be better understood by referring to the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.